Today is Tuesday, Feb. 27, the 58th day of 2007. There are 307 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
Two hundred years ago, on Feb. 27, 1807, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.
BAGHDAD, Iraq ? Iraq?s Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi was slightly wounded in the explosion, which splintered chairs, destroyed a speakers? podium and sent a chilling message that suspected Sunni militants can strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across Baghdad.
As U.S. forces sealed off the area around the municipal building, investigators grappled with the troubling question of how the bomb was smuggled into the ministry of public works ? a seven-story structure with crack surveillance systems from its days as offices for Saddam Hussein?s feared intelligence service.
CUILAPA, Guatemala - Gunmen stormed a Guatemalan prison and shot to death four jailed police officers in a mafia hit aimed at stopping investigators from finding out who ordered the slayings of three politicians from neighboring El Salvador, Guatemala's leader said Monday.
The four policemen killed Sunday included Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit, and three of his officers. They were arrested Thursday in connection with the Feb. 19 killings of three Salvadoran representatives to the Central American Parliament, based in Guatemala City.
President Oscar Berger said "organized crime gangs" reached the officers' cell after getting past eight locked doors at the prison, and were responsible for the "violent deaths of four important witnesses who could have helped the investigation."
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi was slightly wounded in the explosion, which splintered chairs, destroyed a speakers' podium and sent a chilling message that suspected Sunni militants can strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across Baghdad.
As U.S. forces sealed off the area around the municipal building, investigators grappled with the troubling question of how the bomb was smuggled into the ministry of public works - a seven-story structure with crack surveillance systems from its days as offices for Saddam Hussein's feared intelligence service.
BEIJING - Communist leaders have no plans to allow democracy in the near future because they must focus on economic development before political reform, China's No. 3 leader said in comments published Tuesday.
Democracy will emerge once a "mature socialist system" develops but that might not happen for up to 100 years, Premier Wen Jiabao wrote in an article in the People's Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper.
For now, China must focus on "sustained rapid growth of productive forces ... to finally secure fairness and social justice that lies within the essence of socialism," Wen wrote.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The Iraqi Cabinet approved draft legislation Monday to manage the country's vast oil industry and divide its wealth among the population, a key U.S. benchmark for progress in this country. The legislation now goes to parliament for approval.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the decision after the Kurds accepted the draft oil bill over the weekend - nearly two months after the government's own deadline for enacting a new oil law.
Al-Maliki said the measures would be "another foundation stone" in building a new Iraq, which relies on oil revenues for about 90 percent of its national budget.
CUILAPA, Guatemala — Gunmen stormed a Guatemalan prison and shot to death four jailed police officers in a mafia hit aimed at stopping investigators from finding out who ordered the slayings of three politicians from neighboring El Salvador, Guatemala's leader said Monday.
The four policemen killed Sunday included Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit, and three of his officers. They were arrested Thursday in connection with the Feb. 19 killings of three Salvadoran representatives to the Central American Parliament, based in Guatemala City.
President Oscar Berger said "organized crime gangs" reached the officers' cell after getting past eight locked doors at the prison, and were responsible for the "violent deaths of four important witnesses who could have helped the investigation."
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi was slightly wounded in the explosion, which splintered chairs, destroyed a speakers' podium and sent a chilling message that suspected Sunni militants can strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across Baghdad.
As U.S. forces sealed off the area around the municipal building, investigators grappled with the troubling question of how the bomb was smuggled into the ministry of public works — a seven-story structure with crack surveillance systems from its days as offices for Saddam Hussein's feared intelligence service.
TOKYO (AP) Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March. And then he became a U.S. spy. Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA's view.
The records, declassified in 2005 and 2006 under an act of Congress in tandem with Nazi war crime-related files, fill in many of the blanks in the previously spotty documentation of the occupation authority's intelligence arm and its involvement with Japanese ultra-nationalists and war criminals, historians say.
In addition to Tsuji, who escaped Allied prosecution and was elected to parliament in the 1950s, conspicuous figures in U.S.-funded operations included mob boss and war profiteer Yoshio Kodama, and Takushiro Hattori, former private secretary to Hideki Tojo, the wartime prime minister hanged as a war criminal in 1948.
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft law Monday to manage the country’s vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population — a major breakthrough in U.S. efforts to press the country’s Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups to reach agreements to achieve stability.
Parliament will take up the measure when it reconvenes early next month after a recess. With all major parties endorsing the bill, approval is likely — although some politicians predicted a vigorous debate on some of the details.
Many Iraqis fear the measure will effectively hand the country’s major natural resources over to foreign oil companies. Supporters maintain that oil giants have the billions of dollars needed to upgrade the country’s decrepit wells, pipelines and port.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft law Monday to manage the country's vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population, a key U.S. benchmark for progress in Iraq. The legislation goes to parliament, which must give final approval.
The agreement marks a major breakthrough in U.S. efforts to press the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups to reach agreements on a series of issues that Washington thinks are essential if Iraq is to achieve stability.
Parliament will take up the measure when it reconvenes early next month after a recess. Under the oil legislation, regional administrations will be empowered to negotiate contracts with international oil companies. The contracts will be reviewed by a central government committee in Baghdad headed by the prime minister.
Iraq's Shi'ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi escaped an apparent assassination attempt after a bomb exploded in municipal offices in Baghdad where he was making a speech. The blast killed at least 10 people.
Elsewhere, a suicide car bomb exploded near a police station in Ramadi, killing at least 14 people.
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SAN SALVADOR, Guatemala - Guatemalan President Oscar Berger on Monday blamed organized crime and corruption for the stunning killings of four jailed police officers who were key suspects in the slayings of three Salvadoran legislators.
A group of heavily armed men wearing prison guard uniforms entered El Boqueron maximum security prison east of Guatemala City late Sunday and shot to death the four police officers in their separate cells, officials said.
Agents from the FBI, which has been asked to assist in the investigation of the Salvadorans' killings, were supposed to have questioned the four police officers on Monday, Salvadoran authorities said.
Prison killings in Guatemala are the latest chapter in a cross-border saga.
By Héctor Tobar and Alex Renderos, Special to The Times
February 27, 2007
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's ruling Congress party was heading for defeat in polls in the states of Punjab and Uttarakhand on Tuesday, in elections seen as reflecting wider voter concern about inflation and economic reforms.
Though the results are not expected to destabilize the national coalition, which the Congress heads, the electoral losses may curb Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ability to push through controversial reforms, analysts said.
Congress rules the northern farm state of Punjab, the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand as well as restive Manipur in India's isolated northeast, which all went to polls this month.
In an earlier version of this story, the headline incorrectly stated that the CIA and not the G-2 intelligence service had recruited Japanese war criminals to spy for the U.S.
TOKYO (AP) - Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March. And then he became a U.S. spy. Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA's view.
The records, declassified in 2005 and 2006 under an act of Congress in tandem with Nazi war crime-related files, fill in many of the blanks in the previously spotty documentation of the occupation authority's intelligence arm and its involvement with Japanese ultra-nationalists and war criminals, historians say.
BAGHDAD, Iraq Two months after the deadline, Iraq's Cabinet is approving a draft oil law that the prime minister says will benefit everyone.If it's approved by parliament, a special council will decide on all oil contracts, and distribute the money among all Iraqis.A law was supposed to be ready by the end of last year, and the White House pressured Baghdad to make good. But the deadline passed when the Kurds objected because they wanted a greater role in awarding contracts and administering revenue. Much of the oil in Iraq is either in the Kurdish north or the Shiite south.
The International Court of Justice ruled today that Serbia had failed to prevent the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war, but cleared the country of direct intent to commit genocide.
The landmark case, brought by Bosnia against Serbia, was the first time the United Nation?s highest court had dealt with a lawsuit in which one country charged another with genocide.
The court, based in The Hague, found that genocide did take place at Srebrenica, and gave a long list of atrocities throughout Bosnia which it said were carried out by Bosnian Serb fighters. But the court said it could not prove strict intent by the Serbian state, and therefore decided Serbia was not guilty of genocide.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Cabinet signed off Monday draft legislation to manage Iraq's vast oil industry and share its wealth among the Iraqi people, a key U.S. benchmark for progress in this country. The legislation now goes to parliament for approval.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the decision after the Kurds accepted the draft oil bill over the weekend — nearly two months after the government's own deadline for enacting a new oil law.
Al-Maliki hailed the measures as "another foundation stone" in the building of a new Iraq, which relies on oil revenues for about 90 percent of its national budget.
JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 26 ? ?Proudly South African? is this nation?s E Pluribus Unum, a slogan stamped on products, echoed in radio commercials and inculcated into the new South African DNA. Much as America?s motto celebrates melding many into one, South Africa?s says that it doesn?t matter what you look like ? we can all be proud of our young country.
Enter Louis Pepler, who, perhaps inadvertently, has cast the notion of South African pride in a whole new light. He and two friends penned an unlikely rock ballad about an Afrikaner general named De la Rey who battled British forces a century ago, and it instantly became an Afrikaner anthem.
Mr. Pepler calls the song, ?De la Rey,? a testament to Afrikaner pride. ?I?m part of this rainbow country of ours,? he said. ?But I?m one of the colors, and I?m sticking up for who I am. I?m proud of who I am.?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.Adel Abdul-Mahdi was slightly wounded in the explosion, which splintered chairs, destroyed a speakers' podium and sent a chilling message that suspected Sunni militants can strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across Baghdad.As U.S. forces sealed o...
BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 ? An explosion inside the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Public Works killed at least five people today and injured Iraq?s vice president and the minister in what Iraqi official described as a possible assassination attempt.
Though it was unclear where the bomb was hidden or who was the target of an assassination attempt, the attack was the most serious breach of an Iraqi government building since November, when dozens of employees at the Ministry of Higher Education were kidnapped by gunmen dressed in police commando uniforms.
Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, one of two Iraqi vice presidents, was approaching a conference room lectern to address ministry employees at the time of the blast, which tore through walls and hurled him to the ground, witnesses said. His guards threw themselves on top of him, and he was immediately taken to an American-run hospital inside the Green Zone where witnesses said he was received in a wheelchair, covered in dust but smiling.
THE HAGUE, Feb. 26 ? The International Court of Justice on Monday for the first time called the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 an act of genocide, but determined that Serbia itself was not guilty of the enormous crime.
Nonetheless, it faulted Serbia, saying it ?could and should? have prevented the genocide and, in its aftermath, should have punished the Bosnian Serbs who systematically killed close to 8,000 men and boys in July 1995.
The ruling resulted from a civil lawsuit Bosnia had brought against Serbia, the first in which one country sued another for genocide.
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Commission said Monday it was suing Germany over a law allowing Deutsche Telekom AG to keep rivals off its high-speed Internet networks. EU spokesman Martin Selmayr told reporters that a letter "of formal notice" was sent to Berlin after it ignored repeated warnings not to adopt legislation that could grant Deutsche Telekom a de-facto monopoly on a new broadband network. The German parliament on Friday passed the telecommunications law, exempting Deutsc...
One of my favorite photographs of India shows a sadhu right out of central casting -- naked body, long matted hair and beard, ash-smeared forehead -- chatting away on a mobile phone.
The contrast says so much about today's India, a country that manages to live in several centuries at the same time.
There are other photographs I have seen over the years that illustrate the same phenomenon -- laborers carrying TV sets on their heads, a bullock-cart transporting rocket parts, a car overtaking an elephant, and so on. But there's something particularly special about the sadhu and his cell phone.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An oil law crucial to resolving political divisions in Iraq edged closer to approval after Kurds said some key issues were resolved, officials said on Sunday.
Passing an oil law to help settle potentially explosive disputes among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian communities over the division of oil reserves has been a key demand of the United States in providing further military support to the government.
Officials are in last ditch talks to finalize a draft law that sets rules for sharing the wealth from the world's third largest oil reserves.
The recent announcement by the State Department to admit 7,000 Iraqi refugees into the United States is welcome news and hopefully a shift in U.S. policy ("More Iraqi refugees permitted," Feb. 15). The administration must protect and assist Iraq's ethnic and religious minorities.
Since the war began, violence has contributed to the mass exodus of Iraqi Christians, who number 1.2 million and comprised 6%-8% of Iraq's population. The United Nations reports that Assyrians/Chaldeans make up nearly 40% of the refugees fleeing Iraq. While alarming, the numbers are not surprising.
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BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iraq's most powerful Shiite militant cleric publicly repudiated the new Baghdad security plan for the first time on Sunday, according to a statement distributed by his aides that said the push to quell violence was doomed to fail as long as it was directed by the U.S. military.
The cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, controls the Mahdi Army, the largest Shiite militia in Iraq. Without his support for the stepped-up security effort, prospects for continued sectarian violence and direct conflict with U.S. troops could increase.
His whereabouts has remained unknown since Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki announced the start of the plan two weeks ago. Until now al-Sadr has appeared to cooperate, allowing his most unruly commanders to be arrested and ordering his organization to focus on political rather than military resistance.
Thanks to a more than $1-million donation from a gay male couple who hope one day to marry in California, UCLA's law school is planning to establish what is described as the nation's first endowed academic chair in sexual orientation law.
The cash gift from John McDonald and Rob Wright will help fund the research of a still-to-be-named professor at UCLA Law School's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy. That 5-year-old think tank investigates such topics as anti-homosexual discrimination, the impact of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policies and the demographics of same-sex couples who have adopted children.
"This is going to support legal scholarship, legal research and education that covers a whole area so fundamental to creating change," said McDonald, a retired businessman and attorney who earned his bachelor's degree at UCLA. "We just think this is one of the best things we've ever done."
CUILAPA, Guatemala - Four imprisoned Guatemalan policemen were killed in their cells Sunday, days after being arrested in connection with the deaths of three Salvadoran politicians, police said.
Rioting inmates also took the warden and other prison officials hostage.
National police spokesman Maria Jose Fernandez said she didn't know who had shot the prisoners.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Oil Ministry cast doubt Sunday on statements indicating the Kurds had agreed to support a draft oil law that would divide revenues among all Iraqi factions and meet a key U.S. benchmark in Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government had promised to enact a new oil law by the end of 2006 but missed the deadline due to objections from the Kurds. Many of Iraq's vast oil reserves can be found in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south, and the Kurds wanted a greater role in awarding contracts and administering the revenues.
Massoud Barzani, president of the self-governing Kurdish administration in the north, said Saturday that he and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, had discussed the latest draft law by telephone with al-Maliki and "the results were good."
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. But it carried the hallmarks of an increasingly bloody struggle for control of Anbar province - a hotbed of anti-U.S. guerrillas since the uprising in Fallujah in 2004 that galvanized the insurgency.
U.S. military envoys and pro-government leaders have worked hard to sway clan chiefs and other influential Anbar figures to turn against the militants, who include foreign jihadists fighting under the banner of al-Qaida in Iraq. The extremists have fought back with targeted killings and bombings against fellow Sunnis.
The blast in Habbaniyah - in the heart of insurgent territory about 50 miles west of Baghdad - was among the deadliest against civilians in Anbar.
LILLE, France - France's crusader of the far right, who rallied flag-waving followers at a National Front party congress Sunday, is making his sixth long-shot bid for France's presidency.
The only question is, will voters this time be won over by Jean-Marie Le Pen's aggressively nationalist, anti-immigrant message?
Le Pen shocked France - and much of Europe - five years ago when he came in second behind President Jacques Chirac in the first round of voting in the presidential race. Le Pen lost decisively in the runoff, but his opponents seem concerned that he could pull off another upset in the polls.
HAPPISBURGH, England - A 12-bedroom guest house, with beautiful views of the North Sea, a lighthouse and sandy beaches, sounds like prime real estate.
But Cliff House is nearly worthless.
The offshore wooden barrier that once protected the sand and clay cliffs of this stretch of eastern English coast has broken apart, and the government has decided that with the expected rise in sea levels and storm surges that experts attribute to global warming, some vulnerable coastal areas are no longer worth defending.
CONAKRY, Guinea - Guinea's powerful union chiefs called off a crippling strike Sunday after the president agreed to appoint a new prime minister in an attempt to end simmering unrest that has killed scores of people this year.
One of the country's two main union chiefs, Rabiatou Serah Diallo, said Sunday that union officials proposed five names for the post and President Lansana Conte was expected to choose one of them.
Ibrahima Fofana, another union leader, said the strike would end at midnight Sunday but that Monday should be a day of prayer for the more than 100 people killed in political violence this year, mostly during clashes with security forces.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. But it carried the hallmarks of an increasingly bloody struggle for control of Anbar province ? a hotbed of anti-U.S. guerrillas since the uprising in Fallujah in 2004 that galvanized the insurgency.
U.S. military envoys and pro-government leaders have worked hard to sway clan chiefs and other influential Anbar figures to turn against the militants, who include foreign jihadists fighting under the banner of al-Qaida in Iraq. The extremists have fought back with targeted killings and bombings against fellow Sunnis.
The blast in Habbaniyah ? in the heart of insurgent territory about 50 miles west of Baghdad ? was among the deadliest against civilians in Anbar.
BAGHDAD, Feb. 25 ? A female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives and ball bearings blew herself up at a Baghdad university today, killing at least 40 people, and strewing fingers, pens, purses and bloody textbooks all over the ground.
The blast, at a campus of Mustansiriya University, was one of several bombs and explosions to hit Baghdad, making today one of the worst days of violence since Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki announced a new security crackdown.
An hour after the blast, a new challenge emerged for the prime minister and the Baghdad security plan he has helped devise and has repeatedly called a success.
AS a springer spaniel named Felicity's Diamond Jim pranced to victory at the recent Westminster Kennel Club dog show held at New York's Madison Square Gardens, I was thinking of another springer spaniel named Minnie whose life is quite different from that of the champ.
Minnie and a boxer named Bailey escaped last month from their yard and fell through the thin ice covering a pond in Connecticut. They might have died in the frigid, muddy water had a neighbor not heard Bailey's frantic barking. An intrepid firefighter braved the icy water and rescued the dogs.
The dogs' brush with death was the result of an invisible fence, which works by administering shocks to dogs via an electronic collar when they approach a boundary. These fences and shock collars are a disaster waiting to happen.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Oil Ministry cast doubt Sunday on statements indicating the Kurds had agreed to support a draft oil law that would divide revenues among all Iraqi factions and meet a key U.S. benchmark in Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government had promised to enact a new oil law by the end of 2006 but missed the deadline due to objections from the Kurds. Many of Iraq's vast oil reserves can be found in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south, and the Kurds wanted a greater role in awarding contracts and administering the revenues.
Massoud Barzani, president of the self-governing Kurdish administration in the north, said Saturday that he and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, had discussed the latest draft law by telephone with al-Maliki and "the results were good."
Romano Prodi was given another chance Saturday to lead Italy's government, though allies and enemies worried that his still-fragile coalition would remain divided and vulnerable to another collapse.
"It's a weak solution," Daniele Capezzone, a leader of the Radical Party, which is allied with Prodi, told the ANSA news agency. "Within a month we risk finding ourselves in the same situation."
On Wednesday, Prodi resigned after far-left members of his diverse coalition killed a Senate vote on the government's foreign policy.
ROME (Reuters) - Romano Prodi, given a second chance to prove that he can govern Italy, scrambled for support on Sunday ahead of a vote of confidence this week that he must win to stay on as prime minister.
Prodi resigned last week after suffering an embarrassing defeat over foreign policy in the upper house. But Italy's president asked him on Saturday to stay on as premier and put his majority to the test in parliament.
Prodi needs to prove he has enough support in both chambers of parliament to keep his government afloat. The votes are expected to take place on Thursday and Friday.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Kurdish authorities have agreed to back a draft law to manage and share Iraq's vast oil wealth, removing the last major obstacle to approving the measure and meeting a key U.S. benchmark in Iraq, a top Kurdish official said Saturday.
Approval of a new oil law could help open the way for international oil companies to invest billions to upgrade Iraq's decrepit wells and pipelines and exploit the country's reserves, among the world's largest.
The bill also provides a formula for distributing revenues among all major ethnic and religious groups, easing Sunni fears of being cut out of a future bonanza because their central and western homelands lack extensive reserves.
PARIS - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended his European tour Saturday without persuading any country to end crippling economic sanctions based on his power-sharing deal with the rival Islamic militant Hamas.
The bright spot in his trip was a promise Saturday from French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to work with a government that includes Hamas and Abbas' more moderate Fatah party. His comments were more positive than those of other European leaders during Abbas' four-country tour. But Douste-Blazy made no commitments on resuming aid frozen since Hamas won parliamentary elections a year ago.
Europe's governments remained firm: Any new Palestinian government must recognize Israel's right to exist before direct international aid can resume.
Well, what about "Binta and the Great Idea" or "West Bank Story"?
"The Little Matchgirl" or "No Time for Nuts"?
Tonight's Academy Awards aren't all about big pics, big stars and legendary directors, you know.
LAGA, East Timor (Reuters) - Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over as East Timor's prime minister last year, formally announced on Sunday he would run for the presidency in April's election.
The announcement in front of about 2,000 supporters came after he had told Al Jazeera English earlier this week he intended to be a candidate.
"Today in Laga subdistrict of Baucau district, I am telling all people of East Timor and the world that I am running for presidential candidate of East Timor," Horta said.
TOKYO - Japan launched its fourth spy satellite Saturday, completing its capabilities to monitor activities worldwide and bolstering its ability to observe neighboring North Korea's nuclear program.
The satellite, along with a smaller test prototype, was launched from the country's space center on a remote southern Japan island atop an H-2A rocket, the workhorse of Japan's space program.
Japanese space agency spokesman Satoki Kurokawa described the liftoff - which had been postponed three times due to poor weather - as a success. Television footage showed the rocket racing up through cloudy skies.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Thousands of Shiites rallied in the holy city of Najaf Saturday to protest the nearly 12 hour detention of the eldest son of Iraq's most influential Shiite politician as he crossed back from Iran. The U.S. military called the incident "unfortunate."
Amar al-Hakim, 35, was taken into custody Friday at the Zirbatyah crossing point southeast of Baghdad along with his security guards, said his father's secretary, Jamal al-Sagheer. Al-Hakim was freed about 12 hours later, but his bodyguards remained in custody, al-Sagheer said.
The convoy was using the same route Washington believes is used to keep powerful Shiite militias flush with weapons and aid.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. But it carried the hallmarks of an increasingly bloody struggle for control of Anbar province - a hotbed of anti-U.S. guerrillas since the uprising in Fallujah in 2004 that galvanized the insurgency.
U.S. military envoys and pro-government leaders have worked hard to sway clan chiefs and other influential Anbar figures to turn against the militants, who include foreign jihadists fighting under the banner of al-Qaida in Iraq. The extremists have fought back with targeted killings and bombings against fellow Sunnis.
The blast in Habbaniyah - in the heart of insurgent territory about 50 miles west of Baghdad - was among the deadliest against civilians in Anbar.
ROME - The Italian president asked Romano Prodi on Saturday to stay on as premier and face a new vote of confidence in parliament, seeking a swift end to the political crisis prompted by the government's resignation days ago.
President Giorgio Napolitano announced his decision after holding two days of talks with party leaders and receiving reassurances that Prodi had the necessary parliamentary backing.
SINGAPORE - Clad in military-style pants, bright T-shirts and dangling chains, 12 Singapore lawmakers grooved to hip-hop music in the city-state's largest annual street parade Saturday, part of the ruling party's efforts to ditch its authoritarian and conservative image.
The ministers, most of whom won parliament seats in last year's election, were joined by 300 dancers as they showed their moves at the Chingay parade. Some 18,000 people crowded the sidewalks of the Orchard Road shopping district, which was ablaze with lights and pyrotechnics.
"We enjoyed it," said civil servant Kok Ping Soon, 36, who attended the parade with his family. "It was good to see them dancing, to see that they are part of the community."
TOKYO - Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March. And then he became a U.S. spy. Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA's view.
The records, declassified in 2005 and 2006 under an act of Congress in tandem with Nazi war crime-related files, fill in many of the blanks in the previously spotty documentation of the occupation authority's intelligence arm and its involvement with Japanese ultra-nationalists and war criminals, historians say.
In addition to Tsuji, who escaped Allied prosecution and was elected to parliament in the 1950s, conspicuous figures in U.S.-funded operations included mob boss and war profiteer Yoshio Kodama, and Takushiro Hattori, former private secretary to Hideki Tojo, the wartime prime minister hanged as a war criminal in 1948.
A truck exploded Saturday as worshippers left a Sunni mosque west of Baghdad, killing at least 35 people and injuring more than 60 in an apparent sign of increased internal Sunni battles between insurgents and those opposing them.
The imam of the mosque in Habbaniyah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, had spoken out against militants fighting the U.S.-backed government, including the group al-Qaida in Iraq.
At least 35 people were killed and 62 injured, said Lt. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed in Habbaniyah, which lies between the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah -- both hotbeds of the insurgency.
BAGHDAD, Iraq ? Thousands of Shiites rallied in the holy city of Najaf Saturday to protest the nearly 12 hour detention of the eldest son of Iraq's most influential Shiite politician as he crossed back from Iran. The U.S. military called the incident "unfortunate."
Amar al-Hakim, 35, was taken into custody Friday at the Zirbatyah crossing point southeast of Baghdad along with his security guards, said his father's secretary, Jamal al-Sagheer. Al-Hakim was freed about 12 hours later, but his bodyguards remaine